I was tall for my age, skinny and not that interested in playing rugby, like many boys of my generation i played all sports and loved being outside running around. I was about 10/11 when i first got introduced to rugby, i remember it well my first experience of the game , the football season hand just ended and at that time you played football on a Saturday morning and then went to church on a Sunday. Now it is fair to say that i was not a fan of going to church as a child and would of done almost anything to not go.
I went to school in Tunbridge Wells and i was lucky enough to have some friends in my class that played rugby on a Sunday morning at Tunbridge Wells rugby club, one of these friends asked me to come along one Sunday and try it out, so after school i went home and asked my mum if i could go along to rugby on Sunday morning, my mum being a very supportive parent said yes.
Sunday morning came and so did the weather, I went along to the club and my mum signed me up for the rest of the season. It was slamming down with rain on my first training session, mud everywhere, I joined in with the rest of guys that where there i knew a handful of them from school, we did so games to start with like tag and stuck in the mud, we then did some ball skills, passing and catching drills, i remember thinking that the ball was so much bigger than my hands how do i hold onto it when i run.
The next part of the session was the most fun and the most memorable for me. Tackle practice! i had never tackled anyone before but i had seen it on TV and when watching my Dad play. The coach turned up with two huge tackle bags and explained we had to hit the bag as low and as hard as possible this meant sliding though the mud which of course made all of us very happy at the time, our parents not so much.
So i waited in the line for the coach to tell me it was my turn. i stepped up to the line and when the coach said "UP" i spirited as hard as a could about 5 paces slipped and fell flat on my face. My boots where useless in the amount of mud there was, I got up went back to the start and this time went straight though and hit the bag low. I remember thinking this is great how much fun is this.
Unfortunately it did not last as although i had great fun training the games where different i felt lost and shy during the games and struggled to handle the physical side of the game when i was that age, we moved away from Tunbridge Wells later that year and i did not play club rugby again until i was 15.
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